Closing date delayed in fight over Trib

A federal judge has temporarily put off a closing date in the ownership battle for the Salt Lake Tribune.

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart on Wednesday granted a motion by former Tribune managers to toll the closing date, saying "common sense, fairness and equity" required him to do so.

Absent the court order, a disputed option agreement between Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co. and new Tribune owner MediaNews Group Inc. called for a closing on July 31. At that time, SLTPC was expected to tender full exercise price for the newspaper in exchange for all Tribune assets except for stock in a company that oversees advertising, printing and circulation of the Tribune and the Deseret Morning News.

But SLTPC asked instead that the 120-day closing period called for in the 1997 option agreement be stayed while it pursues its challenge of an appraisal that resulted in an exercise price of $355.5 million.

"Until that issue gets resolved, there is no exercise price," SLTPC attorney Gary Bendinger said. "Without an exercise price, there can be no closing."

SLTPC has sued the firm that conducted that final appraisal, Management Planning Inc., saying the New Jersey company's final report "proposes a wildly overstated fair market value for the Tribune assets." The $355.5 million price is at least $100 million above the true value of the paper, SLTPC maintains.

MediaNews on Wednesday argued that the July 31 closing should stand. Attorney Kevin Baine noted that SLTPC has already had at least six months more than what is allowed under the contract, as Stewart has halted the closing period once before.

Baine said SLTPC is attempting to thwart a "road map" Stewart laid out last month when he ruled that MediaNews was required to honor the option agreement it inherited when it purchased the Tribune in January 2001.

"The plaintiff has been erecting roadblock after roadblock on the road map this court set forth," Baine said.

In issuing his June 25 order that the stock in Newspaper Agency Corp. could legally be separated from all other Tribune assets, Stewart said it was his intention to have a closing before a scheduled November trial in the case.

Stewart reiterated that wish on Wednesday but also said it is "reasonable" to put off an immediate closing on the option agreement.

The judge suggested the issue may arise at an Aug. 26 hearing in the Management Planning case on motions filed by the appraisal firm and MediaNews to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety.